volume one

374 HISTOET OF THE CEIJSADES.
they directed, there was notMng elevated, everything seemed
to keep down to the level of their character. In a word, this
war developed neither heroic passions nor chivalric qualities.
Camps had no great captains to admire or imitate ; and the
period we have described can boast of only two men of
marked genius,—he who had roused the Western world by
liis eloquence, and the wise minister of Louis, who had to
repair in France all the misfortunes of the crusade.
All the energies of this crusade were not directed against
Asia. Several preachers, authorized by the Holy See, had
exhorted the inhabitants of Saxony and Denmark to take up
arms against some nations of the Baltic, still plunged in the
darkness of paganism. This crusade was led by Henry of
Saxony, several other princes, and a great number of bishops
and archbishops. An army, composed of a hunded and fifty
thousand Crusaders, attacked the barbarous and savage
nation of the Sclaves, who unceasingly ravaged the seacoasts,
and made war upon the Christians. The Christian
warriors wore upon their breasts a red cross, under which
was a round figure, representing and symbolizing the earth,
which ought to be obedient to the laws of Christ. Preachers
of the gospel accompanied their march, and exhorted them
to extend the limits of Christian Eiurope by their exploits.
The Crusaders consigned to the flames several idolatrous
temples, and destroyed the city of Malehon, in which the
pagan priests were accustomed to assemble. In this holy
war the Saxons treated a pagan people exactly as Charlemagne
had treated their own ancestors ; but they were not
able to subdue the Sclaves. After a war of three years, the
Saxon and Danish Crusaders grew M'eary of pursuing an
enemy defended by the sea, and still further by their despair.
They made proposals of peace ; the Sclaves, on their part,
promised to become converts to Clmstianity, and to respect
Christian people.* They only made these promises to pacify
their enemies ; and when the latter laid down their arms,
they retiurned to their idols and resumed their pii-acies.
* This crusade from the north is mentioned by Otto of Frisingen.
Saxo the grammarian gives the most ample details in his thirteenth book.
The reader may likewise consult the Latin History of Germany, by
Kruntz. The History of Denmark, by Mallet, does not say a word of
this war.